iBreviary

Spooky! I suggest in this blog that the Archbishop of Canterbury take bishops to Lourdes -- and then he does. Then, a few weeks ago, I come up with something called "CathPod", only to learn now that about that time an application called iBreviary was being launched. Report in Italian here and Spanish here.

The iBreviary is an application which "allows the believer to pray simply via an intuituve interface", according to a communique from the Vatican’s Council for Social Communications. You pray using the Breviary -- the daily prayer of the Church -- off an iPhone, updated each day. Since it was made available three weeks ago -- free of charge from iTunes -- there have been 8,000 downloads. There are plans for audio accompaniments --Gregorian chant -- as well as additional prayers.

The creator of iBreviary, Fr Paolo Padrini, runs a popular website called Passi nel deserto ("Steps in the desert"). At the moment iBreviary is available only in Italian, but English and Spanish are promised.

A handsome addition to the growing library of digital prayer resources which are set to revolutionize, if not the way Catholics pray, then the means they use to do so.

What is also needed is an alarm solution which draws our attention to the hour of prayer in the day... much like the Moslem holy man calling all Muslims over their loudspeakers to pray. Instead of rolling out the mat we roll out the kneelers.

The entire Office + the daily Mass readings in English are available for the iPhone (though it's not free). I've had it since the summer, but have to admit I turn to it only in a pinch and prefer the solidity of my breviary (whose batteries never fail at a critical moment!).